Kelli Ward

On July 14, 2015, Ward announced she would be entering the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Arizona, against long-time incumbent John McCain, who was viewed by many political analysts as a top target of the Tea Party movement and by other Republican conservatives.[14] On December 2, 2015, Ward announced that per Arizona's resign-to-run laws, she would resign from the state senate, effective December 15, in order to dedicate her time to running for the U.S. Senate.[15] She was succeeded by Sue Donahue.[16]

On July 11, 2016, Ward published an ad on her Facebook page saying that John McCain, her primary opponent for the 2016 Republican primary Senate election, was too friendly with Secretary Hillary Clinton. The ad said that they were nearly identical in their political beliefs, stating that "they agree" on issues such as "amnesty for illegal immigrants," opposing President George W. Bush's tax cuts, a gasoline tax, and "blocking conservative judges."[17] The ad was an identical copy of a 2008 ad published by then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney, except that Ward replaced Romney's approval message at the end of the video with her own.[18] Romney's lawyers contacted Ward and her campaign ordering her to cease any further use of the ad, stating Romney for President did not authorize any use of the ad.[19] Ward's campaign did not dispute the similarities, telling reporters that "Mitt Romney got it right." Stephen Sebastian, Ward's spokesman, added "If the shoe fits, wear it. The substance is still the same. Some things never change."[20]

In August 2016, Ward lost the primary to McCain.[21]

In October 2016, Ward announced that she would run in the 2018 Republican primary against incumbent Senator Jeff Flake (who later announced he would retire from the Senate).[2][3] Ward criticized Flake for being "an open-borders, amnesty globalist," describing herself as "a build-the-wall, stop-illegal-immigration Americanist".[22] In the primary, Ward faced U.S. Rep. Martha McSally and former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio.[23] Arpaio and Ward were considered in contention for the same group of primary voters, as they are both highly conservative and staunchly pro-Trump, whereas McSally has a more moderate record.[24]

In July 2017, after McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer, Ward said that she hoped that McCain would resign as quickly as possible.[25] Ward said in a radio interview, "I hope that Senator McCain is going to look long and hard at this, that his family and his advisers are going to look at this, and they're going to advise him to step away as quickly as possible. So that the business of the country and the business of Arizona being represented at the federal level can move forward. ... We can't have until the 2018 election, waiting around to accomplish the Trump agenda, to secure the border and stop illegal immigration and repeal =Obamacare and fix the economy and fix the veterans administration, all those things need to be done and we can't be at a standstill while we wait for John McCain to determine what he's going to do."[25] Ward said that she hoped that Arizona's governor would consider appointing her to fill McCain's seat.[26]

In August 2017, several events affected her campaign. She expressed her support for President Trump's pardon of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of criminal contempt of court.[27] Billionaire Robert Mercer—who had supported Ward's 2016 campaign—announced that he would donate $300,000 to a Super PAC supporting her 2018 run.[28]

Also in that month, a video attack ad appeared accusing Ward of agreeing with the chemtrails conspiracy theory and referring to her as "Chemtrail Kelli". The advertisement was sponsored by the Senate Leadership Fund, aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,[29][22] and may have been the first time Ward came to the attention of "many outside Arizona" according to journalist Clare Malone,[22] (an ad on the subject of chemtrails and Ward first appeared in the 2016 Senate race with McCain).[30] Politifact rated the claim that Ward "hosted a town hall on 'chemtrail conspiracy theories' and is open to sponsoring chemtrails legislation" as "mostly false,"[29] and factcheck.org labeled the ad "misleading."[31] Ward criticized the ad as demonstrating "sexism reserved for conservative women."[22]

In October 2017, Ward was formally endorsed by former Senior Counselor to the President Steve Bannon in her 2018 campaign. Ward appeared together with Bannon to announce the endorsement.[32] She was also endorsed by Great America PAC, which has been described as "an arm of Team Bannon." Bannon has said he believes Ward will help build a wall on the southern border of the US and repeal the Affordable Care Act.[33] Ward later attempted to distance herself from Bannon in the aftermath of Bannon's public falling-out with Trump, whose endorsement Ward also sought, according to The Arizona Republic.[32] In January 2018, Ward said: "Steve Bannon, I don't know that I actually really got a full endorsement from Steve ... He's not somebody that I've reached out and talked to in any way, shape, or form ... I am distancing myself from Steve Bannon."[34] Ward was also endorsed by Sean Hannity,[35] Laura Ingraham,[36] Rep. Steve King,[37] and Sen. Rand Paul.[38]

In May 2018, Joe Arpaio accused Ward of having enticed him to bow out of the Republican primary in exchange for lucrative speaking gigs with a pro-Trump group; the Ward campaign denied the accusation.[23] The primary was described as "contentious", with Ward refusing to say whether she would support McSally in the general election were she to win the Republican nomination.[39]

In June 2018, The Arizona Republic reported that Ward's ties to controversial and fringe conservative figures were undermining her campaign.[36] During the campaign, Ward disavowed Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim commentator whom she had previously praised and described as a "friend".[40][41] Ward praised Nehlen when he unsuccessfully sought to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2016. She appeared together with Nehlen on a number of occasions.[40][41] Ward's husband, who was also a campaign surrogate, has promoted conspiracy theories about Seth Rich, the Clintons murdering people and John McCain cooperating with the Islamic State.[42] In August 2018, Ward announced a campaign bus tour featuring Mike Cernovich, an alt-right media personality and conspiracy theorist.[43] Cernovich had promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, falsely alleging the existence of a widespread pedophile network within the Clinton campaign, whose existence Ward refused to deny. When Ward was asked if she agreed with Cernovich's beliefs, she said that she didn't know much about his views.[44]

On August 24, 2018, the day of the announcement that Senator John McCain was ceasing medical treatment for terminal brain cancer, one of Ward's campaign staffers questioned on Facebook if the announcement "was a plan to take media attention off [Ward's] campaign" on "the kickoff day of Kelli Ward's bus tour".[45] In response, Ward wrote: "I think they wanted to have a particular narrative that they hope is negative to me." McCain died hours after Ward's initial comment, which was deleted or removed from public viewing. Ward then made a followup comment (later also deleted or hidden) that the "media loves a narrative ... it's the media making something out of nothing."[46][47]

Ward was defeated by Martha McSally in the August 28, 2018, Republican primary, receiving 28% of the vote to McSally's 52% and Arpaio's 19%.[48]